Commission approves skate park design

Deirdre Newman

A design has been approved for a long-awaited skate park in TeWinkle

Park but Bark Park users still fear there won’t be enough parking to

accommodate dog owners and skaters.

The Parks and Recreation Commission approved the design that

garnered the most support from the community and meshes the best with

the available space, said Commissioner Byron de Arakal.

Based on parking surveys the city conducted, staff members suggest

redesigning the 51-space Arlington Drive parking lot, which is

currently used by the Bark Park, to provide 79 parking spaces for

skaters and dog owners to share.

That’s not enough, say the bark park users.

“I would think not,” said Terry Tyson. “Because about two weekends

ago ... there were 76 cars there at that time.”

The City Council approved the skate park in October, capping a

decade-long crusade to build a place for skateboarders. In January,

the council awarded a contract for the design of the park to

Purkiss-Rose RSI.

The other alternative to the design chosen was the resuscitated

plan for the Charle-Hamilton park, which never came to fruition.

The design chosen has the skate park entrance facing the existing

parking lot. It allows for a drop-off area and easy access for

emergency and maintenance vehicles. It also locates the park a

considerable distance away from the bordering streets to minimize the

visual effect to people driving by.

This design is also respectful of the park’s open space, de Arakal

said.

“[It] leaves about 60% of that greenbelt space open, so it still

allows for people to be able to walk through there and enjoy just

sitting on the lawn and having a picnic,” he said.

Skate park advocate Jim Gray, who is helping the consultants with

the design, says the skaters remain committed to making the least

possible impact on the neighborhood.

“It would be nice if they realized skateboarders also live in this

city and we want it to be a nice, clean, classy addition, not

something that’s loud and annoys people or doesn’t look good or isn’t

aesthetically pleasing,” Gray said.

Based on parking studies, staff members determined that if peak

demand occurs at the same time for the skate park and the Bark Park,

a total of 74 parking spaces would be needed for them in the

Arlington Drive lot. Although they believe this scenario would not

occur very frequently, they redesigned this parking lot to provide 79

parking spots -- 75 plus four handicapped spaces. An additional 89

spaces are available in the Junipero Drive east parking lot for

overflow and other park uses like the tennis center.

All this parking should be adequate with the addition of the skate

park, de Arakal said.

“It’s kind of misleading to isolate just the [Arlington] parking

lot, as if nobody will park anywhere else,” he said. “There’s plenty

of parking on Junipero [Drive] and the [Junipero] parking lot that,

in my estimation, will more than handle the parking demand. I don’t

think the skate park will generate that much in parking.”

Purkiss-Rose RSI is working on the final design and the City

Council could consider awarding a contract for construction of the

park this fall, said Public Services Director Bill Morris.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at [email protected].